Hi All
I am so lucky! I have the best guests ever. All my crews who come up to Harbourisde to spend a few days with me are absolutely stellar! From the end of June to the beginning of September I am blessed and so fortunate to be able to spend time with them in a place that I love so very much…
Ok, I know, this is starting to sound like a bit of an emotional rant but here is the thing. Some of my crews patiently put up with my incessant nattering while waiting all day for 3, maybe 4 quality fish. Some days maybe even less. What I am trying to say is that I really wish all of you could experience Bamfield now. Like right now! Because people, the fishing is over the top good as I write this. Not good but great, not even great but phenomenal, not just phenomenal but… ok you get the picture…
As many of you know I often have 4 guests on the boat at one time. That’s 8 springs I am after.
Step 1 is let’s get a fish on board. Step 2 is let’s get a fish for each guest (I am often happy when I accomplish that). Step 2 is can we possibly limit out? The past few days we are limiting out 8 springs before noon. Three days ago I had 8 springs in the box by 8:45 am. That’s crazy!
And it’s so much fun!
Ok then here’s the skinny. Get on a boat, get your gear in the water and fish! It’s almost that easy. The best and most consistent fishing seems to be on the north side of the Deer Group, (Kirby, Flemming, Robbers Pass) and on the south side of the Broken Group (Harbour Entrance, Gibraltar, Swale Rock). That all said, the Wall all the way down to Danvers and Assits has also been lights out. Some folks are still catching fish on spoons such as skinny gs, and glow white hootchies but the best producer has been anchovies trolled 6′ to 7′ behind your fav flasher. Bloody nose chrome teaser heads have been my best go to. If fishing the Broken Group ( I love Swale !) I am trolling 38′ to 42′ on the down riggers. I like to go shallower at Robbers Pass at 30′ (the early morning bite at Robbers has been super productive). 42′ has been solid at Kirby, Sandford and Flemming.
Offshore is a mixed bag right now. The coho are thick and there are springs down deep if you can get your gear down to them. Spoons, hootchies or plugs are all working well. We’ve had a blast jigging MacDeeps for coho while on the anchor for hali. 15 to 30 pulls on your salmon rods will suffice. Set the hook hard and reel fast as the coho can spit lead very quickly.
Speaking of hali things have slowed down some. There are still flatties to be caught but it’s a bit hit or miss at the moment. I was on the hook for 6 hours two days ago and managed 5 hook ups landing 3 halis. There were a couple of boats around me that went zippo on halibut. Is it worth the effort then? For sure, we hooked up 40 or more coho on the jig while waiting for the hali bite. It was so much fun! Get on the bank, find a hump that comes up to 200′ or so and anchor or drift bellies / extra large herring on spreader bars. We had guests of the lodge land a 131 cm hali that weighed over 60 lbs yesterday out at Big Bank. Put in the time and you may be rewarded but dang it’s hard to leave the Sound and go offshore when the fishing is so good inside!
I have one more group of guests here this weekend through Monday and then I have to get back to Vancouver to start school. I’ll be back up for the September Long Weekend and then that’s a wrap for me. It’s been a blast as it always has each year.
Talk soon,
In the meantime and inbetween time…
Coach aka Jonathan…